Like Father Like Son?
by AccioRemus
Summary: Rewritten! Harry has an extra reason for not giving in to his godson's advances. Unrequited TeddyHarry, mentions of HPRL and various other pairings slash and het.


A/N Thank you for patience. I decided this needed to be re-written a bit. A companion piece is in the works.

Disclaimer: I'm not Jo. Things would have turned out differently.

Teddy Lupin loved spending time with godfather even more at twenty-two than he had as a child. Sure, there had been some rough patches after Harry and Ginny had split up, but with all three Potter children at Hogwarts most of the year Teddy saw Harry quite often. Just in the last month Harry had taken him to a quidditch game, they'd spent a day browsing the wizarding area of Paris, and earlier that evening they had a casual dinner at the Kelpie and Kneazle. The two men were now headed to Harry's flat for some tea and Teddy thought this would be a perfect opportunity.

Though he'd been having the odd thought off and on for months Teddy Lupin had just recently admitted to himself that he was lusting after his godfather. He was fairly certain that Harry would never allow anything to happen between them, but it was worth a try. He had done a rather deep investigation of the past at age sixteen after a fight with his grandmother and he was fairly certain that Harry was at least occasionally interested in men, and that he had at least a small teenage crush on his own godfather. Teddy was hoping that the latter would help him salvage the relationship if the former wasn't enough to get him what he wanted.

When Harry stepped to the counter to finish making the tea Teddy saw his chance and moved to stand close behind the older man. He was disappointed, however, when Harry stopped short of brushing up against him and said "oh, 'scuse me Teddy, just need to get through to the table there."

Teddy blushed and knew his hair was bright red as he muttered an excuse about being a bit uncoordinated as he shifted so often.

Teddy had to take a deep breath when Harry bent over to rummage through the cupboards for the biscuits, but mentally he scolded himself for thinking his godfather had a nice arse. That internal reprimand didn't stop him from scooting closer once again. A small part of his brain reminded him that acting like a third year with a crush probably wasn't the way to go about things, but the rest of his brain had pretty much shut down a few seconds earlier.

When Harry stood up he looked like he was going to ask Teddy what was going on, but the younger man didn't give him a chance to speak before he carefully leaned over and placed a soft kiss on the other man's lips.

To Teddy's great distress the only reaction from Harry was a gentle push at his chest and a rather large step backwards.

"Teddy, this is not going to happen. Please, listen. We can't do this!" Harry said, and Teddy could see his eyes widening and hear his voice tightening with panic.

Teddy stepped back as well and raised his hands, trying to placate the other man and show he wasn't going to try anything else.

"Okay Harry. God, I'm sorry. Don't hate me. I had to try. I knew that you were attracted to men, or you were once!" Teddy said, hoping he hadn't been wrong about that at least.

Harry took a deep breath before he spoke. "Teddy, I could never hate you."

The younger man let out the breath he'd been holding and let some of the tension leave his shoulders. So he hadn't fucked up completely, at least that was something.

Harry ran a hand through his hair and said, "Teddy, you can't possibly be serious. I'm your godfather!"

Teddy gave the other man a questioning look "And you never noticed your own godfather was good looking?"

Harry sighed and blushed, "Teddy, this isn't about _my_ hormonally overwhelmed teen years."

"Don't give me that, I'm not a teenager."

Teddy had left his flat that evening with a plan to counter Harry's concerns about his age and now seemed like a good time to put it into action.

"Do you want someone older? I can be older you know, " and with a look of intense concentration he morphed, vaguely focusing on the image of his father at Harry's age.

Harry made a stifled choking noise and tuned away nearly shouting, "Change back NOW! Please. You don't understand!"

Teddy had never heard Harry raise his voice like this and there was tone he didn't quite understand as well. This was so far from the range of responses Teddy had expected that it took him a few extra seconds to concentrate on his normal appearance and even then his hair color was still cycling rapidly.

Teddy was frustrated now, Harry seemed to be hiding something, as if the real issue wasn't one of the objections Teddy had been prepared to counter.

"Then help me understand. Harry, just tell me, " the young man said, his volume rising to match his godfather's.

The next words out of Harry's mouth were not shouted as Teddy had expected, instead they were spoken so softly that he almost couldn't hear. Harry had turned away from him and now looked blankly out the window onto the street below.

"Because I slept with your father," he said so calmly he could have been asking Teddy to pass the pumpkin juice.

Teddy simply sat and stared; he had no idea what to say. He was torn between trying to understand what Harry had said and trying not to think too hard about the concept as a whole.

Harry took a deep breath and tried to explain. "Please don't blame him. I thought I would die once I finished destroying the horcruxes. I wanted, just once……" With a deep breath Harry turned to face the younger man "There weren't many people I could trust. I couldn't do that to Ginny; I would have been making a promise I wasn't sure I could keep. Things were finally working out for Ron and Hermione… "

Teddy's shock and frustration were quickly replaced with anger, "You were 17, for fucks sake. He was married!"

"I was hardly a child Teddy, I was supposed to be saving the bloody world!"

If Harry thought that that was enough to placate his godson he was sadly mistaken. Teddy stood facing him now, his whole body tense, his hands balled into fists at his side just looking for an opportunity to strike.

"And what about my mum? Or didn't that matter to the "_chosen one_?" Asked Teddy.

Harry sighed and said, "You don't want me to answer that."

Teddy could feel Harry's calm tone having an effect on him, and slowly he let a little of the anger drain from his body. With a forced and fragile calm he said "I think we crossed that line a while ago."

"Fine. If you're sure. They let me know that if I preferred a woman she would be there for me."

Teddy sank down on the sofa and covered his face with his hands. "Oh god, you're right. I didn't want you to answer that. "

Teddy was surprised to find he wasn't angry anymore, but was overwhelmed with the range of emotions he had been through in the last quarter hour.

Harry seemed to know that Teddy would need a minute to adjust and continued to explain.

"I had convinced myself that being with a man would be less of a betrayal of Ginny, so I made my decision. You must know by now that your parents' relationship was very complicated. Don't misunderstand, they cared about each other very much, but neither of them was in the right frame of mind for a traditional marriage. "

Teddy nodded, figuring it was time to lay all his cards on the table, "I know about dad, I mean about him and Sirius. When I was sixteen I got into a fight with Gran. I said some pretty terrible things about her being a bigot and hating werewolves. She set me straight, so to speak, and told me why she was really worried about my mom and dad being together. She wasn't sure dad was ready to be in another relationship. She gave me several boxes of dad's things the two of you had decided to put away until I was old enough to understand."

When Harry indicated that he knew about the boxes, Teddy continued, "There were some photos and a few letters among the other mementos. I got the feeling that what they had wasn't something you just get past."

Harry smiled, "I think you're right. I never got a chance to talk to either of them about it, but there were always these little signs between them. I'm not sure if anybody could not notice them sitting nearly on top of each other or arguing like an old married couple, but it was different then, when they were your age. I think even when they were together later they still felt like they needed to hide. There was room for your mother in his heart, although it took him long enough to realize it, just ask my ex-mother-in-law. Your mother always knew the truth; there was never any deception. They were good for each other, and there was absolutely no question that both of them considered you to be the best thing that ever happened to them. "

Teddy nodded silently. He realized they had gotten away from the original issue a bit and he was thankful. Rather than taking the chance of having to discuss that he slowly pushed himself up off the couch and said, "I should go."

"I'm sorry you had to find out about this. I guess you understand why ..."

Teddy didn't let him finish, "Absolutely! Can we just forget about the whole thing?"

"Done, but you should get out more with people your own age." Harry said with faint smile.

"It's a deal," said Teddy. After all, he was sure he wouldn't be having any more of those thoughts about Harry after this.


End file.
